#making this killed me inside

[sir-walton-goggins]

"Arthur Morgan would shoot you just for breathing around him"

Arthur in the game:

[made this compilation for myself as a bday gift but y'all can have it too]

[superbat-lmao]

Jason and Damian stay with the League. They’re basically royalty and functionally generals, completing missions with Talia and serving Ra’s and the needs of their family.

As such, a large portion of that is maintaining a public cover. Talia lives a very public life that she uses for political maneuvers.

Jason attends college and Damian attends school, everything is public record and on visas.

However, it isn’t until Bruce is required to attend one of Lex’s galas in Metropolis that he becomes aware of Talia’s status as a Mother.

It’s also the first time he meets her sons.

Cut to Bruce blue-screening as Talia introduces Jason and Damian al Ghul, who are the very picture of upper class royalty.

Nightwing and Robin are immediately in his ear over comms (teamed up with Uncle Clark to foil whatever plot is going on) asking what’s wrong as Bruce can’t take his eyes off his dead son and a child that looks like the spitting image of his father.

[marciaillust]

I added some colours to her :)

[simperius]

My favorite thing about John Oliver trending on Twitter for last night's episode is that all of the haters are saying some variation of "He's trying to bribe a member of the Supreme Court he should go to prison for this 😠😒"

You nailed it bud, that's the heart of the bit. They spent thirty whole minutes making that exact point. It SHOULD be illegal, and YET-

[corseque]

I honestly just wanted one single plot step that I could not predict given the 10 year wait. More behind the cut, I talk about Emet too, and I'm comparing his writing favorably to Solas' writing and why it worked better for me personally, but I am just talking about the writing skill that went into the games and not the dudes themselves, I love them both dearly of course. idk this is a mess and I am not going to edit it for clarity

For me, the game was a series of me saying

"ok I knew that. cool."

"oh yeah, I knew that. I guess it's good that the larger fandom knows about that now."

"nice, but yeah I already knew that too"

"that was something we've been talking about a lot for years"

"this thing they are acting like is a huge enormous reveal that the characters could not possibly have deduced through simply thinking about it in depth over the 10 years... the fans easily figured out by thinking about it in depth 10 years ago. So you would think his girlfriend would be able to figure it out more easily than we did. Like, why couldn't the game have been like 'oh lavellan already figured that out a while ago' it would have cost them nothing"

"this is something I've been thinking about for years, and now that it's being revealed, the companions' reactions to it are very irritating and jarring and unnecessary and I really dislike the experience I'm having right now, in this, the hour of my greatest triumph"

"this thing that is happening on my screen right now is something that I wrote an essay about 2 years ago describing how it would be a letdown if it happened without the correct setup"

"this way that they're characterizing Solas makes him less likable and less interesting than I have been finding him for all these years, and I have had people tell me 'no, he's simpler than you think' for years but I guess I was wrong, he really is simpler than I thought, so that fucking sucks. I wish I could take that information out of my brain."

"this thing is a retcon of information I have been thinking about for 10 years, and so I don't know how to follow along with this new direction, and I'm not sure if I even want to because it's not particularly interesting anyway"

"aw that was sweet"

"why is it like, so very impossible to have an honest back-and-forth with my favorite character about the dilemma that was most interesting to me about the previous game"

and then, as soon as, like, the other fans had caught up to the Solas lore that was really obvious from the other games, the game was.... over without anything surprising happening, or introducing a new element or plot point or perspective, or a real true twist (or two, or three) for those of us who have thought about it too hard for too long. It was very simple and easy, much, much, much, much easier than I was imagining. It all felt sort of like that Nicholson quote:

The thing was, the whole story was so interesting to think about because in 10 years, I couldn't figure out a good solution to it!!!!! It's why I was never able to write post-game fanfic about it. So I was stoked to find out some reveal we never knew about, some new information, in maybe a SERIES of steps of new information, that made the situation more complicated but also something that could be navigated by everyone involved. I know it was asking for a lot, but they had TEN YEARS, and they seemingly had set up the things they did in DAI on purpose, so surely they had some idea of a complex and satisfying narrative that would reconcile everyone.

The reason why I was expecting this is because FFXIV did a very similar story arc, which was started AND concluded WITHIN those 10 years (so it took the FFXIV team far less time to deliver as well). And the conclusion to the story in FFXIV did what I was expecting Dragon Age to do. So I thought, "holy shit, if this is the FFXIV version of this plot, how much more complicated is DA4 going to be!?!?" The DA devs also PLAYED FFXIV so they were completely aware, several years ago, of a satisfying story ending that was pretty darn similar.

People are probably going to think "oh, well Chelsea was disappointed because she spent too much time building it up in her head" but that's exactly it - I actually speculated and thought about FFXIV's story IN DEPTH NONSTOP for a year+ before its ending came out, and the ending absolutely blew me away. FFXIV Endwalker managed to introduce information and new story elements that I was not able to figure out in the YEAR I spent speculating on the ending of FFXIV's story. It took a complicated situation and revealed several several more facets to it that I was not able to predict, but were very interesting and thematically compelling, and took us all to surprising and climactic places that we could not have predicted.

Endwalker ("end" is in the title on purpose) too, was written to be THE ULTIMATE SATISFYING ENDING for a very long-running story in the exactly way that Veilguard SHOULD HAVE for Dragon Age, so while this complexity is being explored, FFXIV also gave catharsis to many different plot threads that have been built up through the previous expansions, until finally it ends with a bang. The story is desperately good to me, I loved it, it gave me closure for Dragon Age long before Veilguard was even revealed, and going back and looking at its story has made this whole thing far less painful for me.

So, I actually did not have a picture in my mind for how things SHOULD go. I just had the thought "I hope it's complicated and there are points of view or facts that we haven't before been exposed to, and the situation is resolved respectfully for Solas, not making him look like a fucking idiot (lol, the only thing I asked for). I don't even care what happens to Solas and Lavellan, I just need the story to be complicated and interesting to think about. Please, god, don't let it be "solas is wrong and he just needs to be convinced" because that's like the simplest story you could tell with this setup"

(btw they managed to tell Emet-Selch's story without making him seem like he's being an idiot on purpose or can never get anything right, and in fact the more the story goes on, the more you think of him as smart and capable and cool, so it is possible to write.... I wasn't asking for the entire moon)

And I played it and... yeah. Most of the story beats were more simple than I wanted them to be, a lot of them didn't make sense in my heart given the writing from Inquisition. (This is another essay, but if Solas' thematic story arc was always about him needing to let go of regrets, why was his personal quest the way it was? After that quest, doesn't he end up regretting not doing more....? Why did he never really talk about regret during Inquisition? If he was so trapped by regret, why was he able to do so many actions? It doesn't mesh well to me. The whole regret thing was very quarter-baked to me, I don't even like thinking about it.) His story never seemed like one that was as simple as being about one man's regrets, but then, I guess, it was always just about one man's regrets.

Emet-Selch's personal storyline (and the way it interacts with and affects the larger story) is very similar but much more cohesive and satisfying to me. It would be difficult to explain why without the aforementioned 5-hour essay. Emet-Selch's story IS about grief and anguish on a world-shaping scale in a similar way that Solas' was apparently always about letting go of regret, but Emet's story was also very pointedly and beautifully about that one theme for the entirety of his story from every tiny detail, from beginning to end - meanwhile, it seemed to me that they tried to introduce 'regret' as the main thrust of Solas' story only in the short story with the Regret demon onward.

From Inquisition just by itself, the closest I personally could get to a story theme for Solas was his inability to trust others hurting him and the world, but his trusting others in DA4 wasn't really addressed to my satisfaction. He is never required to trust anyone before the ending, he never opens up or makes himself vulnerable at all. People find out information about him, he never really dynamically opens himself. So the personal story I thought he had was never addressed at all, while a new one about regret was introduced that never made a ton of sense to me. And I don't think this is just because of my expectations - my reaction to FFXIV proves that I am able to meet good writing where it goes in surprising directions, as long as it's interesting and thoughtful and clear.

And I think this might be part of what people felt was off about the ending - Solas is sort of uninvolved in the revelations that are about him, and doesn't do much to be part of his own ending. Part of what I loved about Solas in Inquisition is that he is not controlled by you in any way, and so he feels like his own person with a very strong sense of character.

Anyway, Emet-Selch, in a very comparable and arguably more extreme plot position, is very involved in the revelations about himself, he always feels like a very strong character who cannot be affected by the player, and the whole situation is handled with deft emotion and care and delicacy. The story is comparatively very uninterested in litigating Emet-Selch or putting him on trial - the story allows you to simply feel the way that you feel in an organic way, and Emet's story spends that energy instead actually exploring his thematic material about grief and legacy, and the larger story theme of existentialism instead, in a way that is very refreshing and interesting. I've seen a lot of western stories tie themselves in knots over "redemption" and frankly it's almost never been interesting at all. Who cares about any of that. lol

(Now, I guess this is a matter of preference, because some people really like being able to shape a character's story, but idk I rewatched the ending of FFXIV and even though there wasn't a choice with Emet, because it isn't a branching story, his story felt more satisfying to me, maybe because there isn't a patronizing choice to be made for him. He is who he is, and he fulfills a very beautiful narrative role and purpose that no other character could in the story.)

I don't know how this could have been improved to me and still allowed players to choose Solas' ending for him, but I can actually think of a few different methods, none of which involve Rook condescendingly and patronizingly lecturing Solas as if Solas had never thought about a single aspect of this horrible situation he's in before that very moment that Rook lectures him lmfao.

All this to say... idk I'm writing this and I am not going back to edit it so it's stream-of-consciousness. But yeah

I just wanted the story to be complicated on a few more levels than I could have predicted. I genuinely don't care what happened, but I thought of a few twists like the Veil coming down and yeah, I was expecting A Single Twist or reveal to happen. In a Dragon Age game.

I wanted Solas to seem cool and capable and noble and smart, and actually feel like he was as old and experienced as he is.

I wanted a clear theme I could sink my teeth into

Like notice I didn't even say anything about Solavellan. Like I never in 100 years thought they were getting a happy ending where they were both alive in bodies, and I like that we got that, but I would honestly trade it for a more complicated story. To me, if a story is sad you can always write fanfic, but if a story isn't COMPLICATED, that's a much more urgent issue.

These 3 things DA4 didn't give me in a way that satisfied me but FFXIV did. anyway idk the way my hyperfixations work, I completely switch to a new subject so talking about Dragon Age is actually hard for me right now.

[queerofthedagger]

the thing is that if comments/kudos/engagement are "payment" for authors' "free" work, aka if fandom is transactional, then readers are in fact "paying" for something. and if readers are "paying" for something then fic is a product, and if you are "paying" for a "product" you are in fact - generally speaking - entitled to make some basic demands regarding said "product." what that looks like is gonna be different from reader to reader but we have spent years upon years arguing, rightly so, that people are not entitled to updates, or completed fics, or to offer unsolicited criticism, or fics going the way they want them to, or that authors shouldn't have the right to delete their stuff, etc etc. etc. and that entire argument crumbles the moment you turn this into a transaction and it's just no wonder (if no less goddamn obnoxious) that readers' entitlement is skyrocketing when they are treated like fucking customers. like. turning this into an us vs them seller vs customer thing is, aside from entirely ignorant of the fact that writers most often are readers themselves, the most horrific thing happening to fandom. stop turning this into a fucking free market under the guise of community. i swear to fucking god

[themintman]

More of these freakazoids. Save me Dalv Undertale

[eri-lessthan3]

Finally

She has a town inside her ❤❤❤

This sure took a while, but I think this is a very nice way to end this year ;p

Also this is the first time ever I did pixel art in terraria (or pretty much everywhere), and the gemspark palette here is rather limited ^^'

Here is the original btw ;3 (I didn't want to go into the underground, so no yoyo, and her thighs got cut off ^^')

The sauce :3

[blackkatdraws2]

Clusterhug [Blank Scripts AU]

[the--firevenus]

Like to think about Jason being the most over protective Robin between all the Robins, like they all are protective of the batman but he's the most vocal about it and will not be shy saying it cuz it's the truth also that's his dad bro hello? Yes he'd say it out loud!?

Like to think that habit didn't die actually, just repressed really really well but the second a threat was aim to Batman's head suddenly you got punch good square in the face by red hood, it's scary cuz for a big guy (bigger than batman) they didn't hear him coming nor does they expect the goddamn crime lord to protect batman, but he did, he's very pissed about it too, then he yelled at Bruce for his lack of awareness to the surrounding

And if Bruce felt nostalgic for a moment from that, well, he won't say it to anyone but his ever slightly soft smile on his face as he type his report would gave it away to anyone observing

[somegrumpynerd]

Okay I know I'm the most biased person about dadmare, but you can't honestly tell me that if Cross started to mention the way xgaster treated him and his brother as children - the way an adult bullied and belittled and abused them - that it wouldn't make Nightmare see red

[tokoweka]

hc that ethari makes a prosthetic horn end for runaan to help with the issue of balance arising from the missing weight of the broken horn and to protect the remaining horn tissue. and it's beautiful and enchanted with as many healing and protective spells ethari can embed into the metal

[rebouks]

Previous // Next

Byrd: Teach us! Juniper: Okay! First, you’ve gotta put your hands above your head. Wren: Nuh. Juniper: This part’s easy. Byrd: Like this?! Juniper: Just like that-.. keep them there and bring your foot up against your leg, like this! [Byrd giggled, wobbling precariously as he mimicked his cousin] Juniper: It takes a lot of practice-.. c’mon, Wren! [Wren scowled, making a break for it; the only thing worse than dancing was being told what to do] … Having given up trying to reply to Alex’s latest letter, Robin stared listlessly at the star shaped stickers on his ceiling. He’d poured his heart out about how nothing ever went right, how he never fit in anywhere, how he was having a tough time at school-.. that he got in a fight, that he kept imagining what it’d be like if his parents died, particularly his father; he’d briefly considered asking what’d happened to her mother too but he’d thought better of the whole thing and viciously crumpled his pathetic attempt into a ball instead. Maybe he ought to burn it in the sink so no one else would read it by accident. He felt bad that he hadn’t replied yet but he’d been in such a foul mood recently that he couldn’t think of anything remotely interesting or fun to talk about, and the last thing he wanted to do was bum her out. He rolled onto his side as Wren stomped toward his door; it rattled familiarly as her little fingernails fiddled with the lock. Robin knew it was her because he could sense her current disdain, and she was the only one of his siblings who’d learnt how to do it-.. plus, if it were either of his parents, they would’ve knocked.

Wren: Juni’s tryna make me dance! Robin: She’s not gonna make you do anything. [Wren grabbed Robin and shook him with urgency, yanking at his hair with desperation] Wren: I’m gonna hide in here, okay?! [Robin sighed; reasoning with a six-year-old, especially Wren, was rather pointless] Robin: Sure. Wren: Wait-.. where’re you going?! Robin: Does it matter? You’re safe in here. Wren: Robinnnnn. Robin: Get off me! Wren: I wanna play! Robin: So, play-.. just don’t delete all my saves again. Wren: You do it! I wanna watch. Robin: I don’t really wan-… Wren: Pleeeeeeease? … Robin: I can’t play if you’re gonna squish me-.. get off. Wren: Uuuugh.. I can’t, I’m stuck. Robin: Move! Wren: [gasps] What is that-.. kill it! Robin: I don’t have anything to ki-… Wren: KILL IT!

[umberandmochaagate]

I love Grace in Sinners for how she had so much rage. Even the visuals of the fire consuming her (I also thought of fire being purification in that moment) and her screams were just *chef's kiss*

Doesn't take away that she endangered everyone including herself when she invited all the vampires into the place for her to kill Bo. She throws the flaming bottle and it's knocked aside immediately. She does get to kill Bo, but Annie, Slim, and Pearline all go too.

[itissadbutitsmy-artblog]

i need to stop setting up comics without planning them in advance

anyways lonely lonely candy people suddenly finding real joy and happiness, and not knowing how to stop doing the thing that makes them happy. ever forever. ever ever ever forever. it makes them happy. they're lonely.

lyrics from choices (this is bismuth) by katyj98 on youtube

[rhonissancee]

STARNOTES SPIDERMAN AU! (or what I like to call....starwebs—like....constellations)

Some HCS (because I can't take my writing seriously atm + I think koue requested this when I was taking a break + this has been in my drafts for quite sometime)

FIRST MEETING: I'd like to think that they were childhood friends (as in their parents are best friends and they'd spend the day flying kites or finding bugs by the creek etc.) before Dan Heng got a scholarship to study abroad, and being ever supportive ofc Cee pushed him to take it (they drifted apart shortly after but they both still have a place in each other's heart)

Oh and some random thing I thought of, here in the Philippines we have these things where we catch spiders and make them fight each other (I'm so sorry to all the spiders in the world. Idk if it's just my family that does that) but it's a big thing here especially if you're like young (I remember my dad and my uncle doing it and watching hehe) + anyways that. Dancee would do that but I don't think either of them would want harm to come to the spiders so it's more like + cee would catch a spider and Dan Heng would tell them it's type, its name, what it eats etc. (he's a huge spider nerd)

They're very province x city actually. When Dan Heng chose to accept the scholarship his family saw it as an opportunity to move as well (they're still in close contact with cee's family and would have fiesta together!) so Dan Heng lived a provincial childhood but ultimately changed into a quiet reserved city boy, cee stayed the same chaotic burst of energy.

How did Dan Heng get the spiderman powers? I'd say the typical way that all the spidermans got it hehe, 'i was bitten by a radioactive spider and now I save the city ig' + but some backstory on it is, during his time abroad (I'd say like senior high age so around 17?) + while he was on a field trip exploring a rural area of some place he felt a wave of nostalgia seeing the tranquility of the fields and the forest (because it reminded him of his childhood and his best friend) soooo he kinda slipped away from the group for a bit and went to hunt spiders (like they used to when they were kids!) + except out of the two, it really was Cee who had a knack for catching them without triggering or alarming them sooo ultimately our poor nerd got bit by a spider that he's never seen before (bam! Spiderman the next day)

So how did they end up roommates? Pure. Coincidence. Because why the heck not. Dan Heng's family wanted him to move back to the PH after his SHS because they missed up, so he did lol! He's now a scholar in a very prestigious school here and that school just so happens to be the one that Cee got into as well. Cee didn't attend the opening ceremony for freshmen since they wanted to spend as much time with their family before moving away so when they did arrive at the flat to find it already lived in they were pleasantly surprised to see familiar ebony curls and watercolor eyes hunched over a small succulent by the windowsill (miwa hi ily btw)

First thing they said to each other? "You got glasses." And yes cee was the one to say that because GLASSES DAN HENG IN THIS AU. CHEER EVERYONE CHEER. IDC. HE HAS SHIT VISION, HES WEARING THEM CONSTANTLY.

Dan Heng did 'save' the city he lived in during his time abroad + but I like to think that it was in a more....casual way, like if he witnessed something on the street he'd step in type shi. But he wouldn't be awake at 1am fighting crime because no. He's 17 let him sleep 😭

BUT IN COLLEGE IT CHANGES. he takes it more seriously because not only is that prestigious school he's in so politically inclined and all about justice and fairness (To my filipino moots idk if you can figure out what type of school I'm hinting at ahakdhsjw) but he witnessed one of the people he cared about get hurt because of bad people so he kinda made a vow to always help out now. So imagine being a scholar + journalist and spiderman all at the same time? (Bro has some crazy time management)

Last yap! Because I feel like I've been talking too much and this is still on the basics of everything TT?courses? I'm not really sure where I want the two to end up- I'd imagine cee would either be in a biochemistry or fine arts (the contrast between the two help) and Dan Heng would be in like something history related? I'm still figuring it out pls don't flame me

Their love story? Oh god think childhood best friends to strangers to roommates to friends to lovers type shi- with a mix of miscommunication trope and yearning +pining in the mix. Gonna hate to say it but miraculous ladybug vibes, cee has no idea about Dan Heng being spiderman, and falls for Dan Hengs spiderman form instead of his regular self 😭 (who has to witness his bestfriend falling for him- but not HIM. you get what I mean TT?) + don't worry though cuz Cee doesn't stay completely oblivious and the upside down iconic spiderman kiss will eventually happen teehee.

Small side note on aesthetics ! I've been disappointed in myself because I don't think I have been portraying Cee's whimsicalness accurately? So I'll try to draw them in different outfits every time I post about starnotes hehe! Like they're so whimsy and warm and hungry caterpillar coded and I hope that everyone saw them as such TT.